In Real Life — Teen Review

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang

In Real Life, a short graphic novel by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang, was a change of pace for me. This short book is about a girl, Anda, who starts playing online games and quickly falls into the real-world trading aspect of them, earning money for doing in-game contracts along with her guild. However, she is soon confronted with the knowledge of how she is destroying the livelihood of players who used the game to sell products for real cash, much like what she was doing. Anda eventually is temporarily suspended from her game on account of some of her actions. She continues on, and solves her problems and other’s.In Real Life was not very realistic concerning video games. I found it to be bland and boring, dramatizing games, and making it seem like work was not an issue. To play a game at a level you want to, you have to grind and make it into a second job. I certainly understand why people in the book bought already-leveled accounts that reduced the workload and increased the fun factor. Ultimately, games are what you make them to be, and this book certainly didn’t understand that aspect. This novel was disappointing. 2.5/5 stars.